


Artificial Hell (Labstuck)

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: 2nd POV, 3rd pov, ? - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Gore, Humanstuck, M/M, Mutantstuck, hoo boy, in which half the characters listed become mutants, jake snaps in one chapter, monsterstuck, no SBurb AU, sobs that's a lot of people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-21 23:24:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8264315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "C'mon John! You should sign this form! After all, we're getting paid to fiddle around with those scientific doo dads and what nots!" Your cousin prodded at your stomach and you stepped closer to the form, signing it quickly.
Your name is John Egbert and you really regret that action.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first successful AU! God I'm so excited to write this! Updates will normally be every few days at 10 pm. Also; I do not ship Dirk with anyone in the red quadrant. Yes I know DirkJake was canon, but I just don't see it tbh. (although DirkJane is great!!)

The rather large suburbs of Skaia always seemed inviting to you. On the outskirts of Skaia lies Derse Woods. Your friends always used to go there. Now, however, you really regret that  decision. You watched fearfully as your cousin sliced your friend's arm clean off, swinging her to the wall. Your name is John Egbert and you regret the day exactly one year ago that you made the biggest mistake of your life.

 

\---

 

As you marched on through the heat of June, your shoes pounded against the cement your friends followed behind you discussing their plans for the summer. Jake and Jade were apparently going to Africa with their grandmother. Lucky. Rose was helping her mother out with managing the small library they own. That left you and Dave, doing nothing interesting all summer. Dave had been rambling on about something involving his computer, when he halted. You turned around to see him gazing at a telephone poll with what looked like a poster taped rather hastily. Below the poorly taped piece of paper was a small basket of different colored pens that were, your surprise, were bolted onto the telephone poll. "Guys, holy shit check this out."

He ushered you over, and you peeked over his shoulder. "What's it for?" Your cousin, Jade, pushed you to the side, and squinted intently at the sign. "It appears to be a form for something." Rose, who stood idly beside Dave, was already taking a pen from the basket. "Test lab equipment safely at Sburb Labs-" you read out loud. Almost absent-mindedly, Jake had taken a pen from the basket and wrote his name and phone number with haste. You narrowed your eyes at the form. Why was there only one copy? It almost seems out of the blue. You didn't see it walking to school, and you were dismissed at 11:00, so- Ugh, you're getting off topic. After a bit of convincing, Rose had signed it, along with Dave and Jade. "C'mon John! You should sign this form! After all, we're getting paid to fiddle around with those scientific doo dads and what nots!" Your cousin prodded at your stomach and you stepped closer to the form, signing it quickly.

After placing the pen down, you read the bottom. 'Sburb Labs; Located in Derse Ring' Derse Ring-? The place where kids went as a dare because they believed it was haunted? No. Thank you. Derse Ring has always creeped you out. There are legends that a giant black wolf with wings guards the place, but that's a myth. Towards the center of Derse Ring was the town of Prospit before it was reduced to rubble by an explosion at the old Sburb Labs, which was called Sgrub Labs at the time. You read the rest of the writing. 'Once you have signed this form, you must meet at the designated location on the 20th of June. Arrive no later than 2:00 pm.'

You have a bad feeling about what you just did.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shit starts picking up; also I love feedback, so don't be afraid to share your opinion!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also known as; In Which Everyone Arrives At The Lab And Shit Goes Down 3 Seconds After

Your name is Jake English and you're utterly shocked at what you have just done. Blue stains are riddled around your body, your hands leaking the thick fluid. Blood scent filled your nose. What have you done?!

 

\---

 

"Dirk, my good man, I'm telling you! This is a good idea!" You discussed over the phone with one of your best friends, Dirk Strider. "Listen English, I have a bad feeling about this whole thing." "Nonsense!" You both jabbered on back and forth about the application, you collapsing onto your bed still jutting words. You didn't notice Jade walk in, as she slipped carefully behind you, gripping your shoulders.

 

You screamed like a fucking girl. You picked up your cell, and could here at the other end, the one and only Dirk motherfucking Strider, snorting and laughing his arse off on the other end. You ended the call, turning around to face your snorting step-sister. "Now that you have my full attention, Ms. Harley, please do inform me about why the /hell/ did you do that?" "Well we're SUPPOSED to be at the lab, stupid!" She smiled, still holding in a high pitched giggle. "Heavens to Mary, you're right-!" You picked up your phone, running down the stairs. Your grandma was in the kitchen, probably doing something with the massive fruit in your yard, so you quickly rushed out the door without her noticing. Jade quickly followed behind.

 

You quickly traveled to Derse Ring, with Jade almost completely out of breath. Reaching Sburb Labs hastily, you knocked on the tall silver door. It buzzed, then creaked open. Inside, you could quickly see that Roxy, Jane and surprisingly Dirk was there. Dave probably convinced him. Then you could see on the other side of the room that John, Dave and Rose were there too. Jade bumped you out of the way, and quickly jogged over to John. A few others you've seen in school were there, too. You only recognized Aradia, however. Walking over to your group of friends, you have short conversations for a bit before a voice towers above everyone.

 

You look up, and find a rather tall man, at least 7'0, leaning on a balcony. The lights are raised quickly, and the area was much brighter now. "ALRIGHT." He bellowed. Now that you could clearly see the man, you could make out long, unruly brown hair strewn over a tan face. He looked like he was wearing some sort  of modern clown outfit. "My name is Dillon Makara." He spoke, a bit softer. "WE WILL HAVE THOSE ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROOM GO WITH MY HEAD ASSISTANT, AND SON, KURLOZ." He pointed to a tall, lanky boy with Halloween makeup around his lips, looking like he had sown them shut. He had wild hair as well, but unlike his father, his hair stuck out everywhere. He had pointed at you, Jane, Dirk, Roxy, Aradia, and a few other girls. He walked into a small corridor, and you followed close behind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John discovers an... interesting room. Well, you know how the saying goes; Curiousity set off a silent alarm that signaled people to capture you. Wait that's not it-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >:^)

You sit alone in that god awful fish bowl-ish cage. This isn't what you asked for. Your name is John Egbert and you just want to get out of here.

 

\---

 

"Everyone on the right side of the room will be led by my second son, Gamzee." Mr. Makara spoke softer. He seems to have a pattern with his voice. His son appeared in front of them, and he was visibly shorter than his brother. His hair was relatively the same as Kurloz's, although it was much shorter and more compact. "Alright motherfuckers, this waaaay." He strolled leisurely down the hallway.

 

"So, like, y'all are going to be workin' mostly with those sweet as fuck lasers and experimentation devices." He strolled on, you and your friends following him. "John, dude, we get to work with sci-if laser things! That's awesome as hell!" Dave leaned into your ear. Well, maybe that was one thing good about this job.

 

You stopped at the end of the corridor, Gamzee smiling lazily. He's probably high. "Sooo, any motherfucking questions before we check out the..." He trailed off, then picking it back up. "The DNA lab?" He finished. You were at the back of the line, behind Dave and Vicky, another friend of yours. As people we asking questions, your eyes trailed over to a small red door that your group had skipped. You quickly dart over to the door, sliding it just enough so you could get inside. You turned around, amazed at what you saw.

 

Cages lined the area, with tubes at the back containing black, red, and blue liquids. You held your breath as your heart raced quickly. You stopped in front of a cage and read the clipboard that was attached to the side. 'NAME; Teresa Pyrope. ARRIVAL DATE; May 13, 2016. EXPERIMENT CLASS; Mutant (Dragon)' Teresa? As in, Teresa Pyrope, the girl that went MISSING? Your hand shot up to your mouth to hold in a gasp. You looked around the room, when a pair of cold, scaly hands scratched at your shin. You jumped back, and saw that something was lingering inside the cage. You stepped back once more. Bad choice.

 

A silent alarm. Great. Three people had slid open the door forcefully. They looked at each other, then one smiled, showing razor sharp shark teeth. "Whale well well. Look's like someboaty codn't keep their curiousity at bay." "We're going to make sure you have a less painful mutation then the others as- a PRIZE for finding out about this place." The third person stayed silent. He removed a blow dart gun from a holster, and shot it into the side of your neck. You fell limp in their arms rather quickly, with the last thing you heard being clattering against a cage and a loud hiss.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> things start picking up

You open your eyes groggily. Your head hurts, and everything is fuzzy. You try to move. Nothing. You're strapped down on a long metal slab. You hear footsteps and start to panic. They get into your field of vision, and you immediately recognize the lady with the shark teeth. "Good morning sleeping boaty." She grinned menacingly.

 

She starts to walk over to a small table. You can here the powering up of something, and you begin to panic. You spot out of the corner of your eye some sort of claw like machine coming out of the wall. As it gets closer, you realize the claws are needles. Your heart races, and you struggle. She presses a button, and the injections reach out toward you, piercing you neck, thigh, arm, and chest. Immediately your whole body started burning oh my god help this is extremely painful they lied.

 

Tears prick at your eyes and you struggle more. That only increased the scorching hot pain that flooded through your veins. You heard a  _riiiip_ before blacking out yet again.

 

\---

 

As you walked down the hall, Roxy and Aradia had been mesmerized by everything. Dirk had been staring at his phone for a while, and Jane asked questions every ten seconds. You leaned against Dirk, and he patted the side of your head. Suddenly, your group stopped moving. "May I please see Jane Crocker, Dirk Strider, Jake English, and Roxy Lalonde in the back room please?" Kurloz asked. You walked to the front of the room, and he led you and the others to the door behind him.

 

You strolled inside, noticing how dark it got. Black and red fluids lined the walls and cages lined the sides. You jogged quickly over to the corner, spotting a small rat skull. "Jake--!" Jane sort of whisper-yelled at you. You rolled your eyes and walked back. As soon as you walked over, the door slammed shut and you could here whirring and the starting up of something.

 

The whirring grew louder. You gripped onto Roxy's shoulder, and she looked around hastily.  _Phtew._ A blow dart was fired into your neck and you stumbled back. Everything began to burn, and you tried removing the large dart as it pumped what felt like poision into your veins. You heard a click, and you pulled it off of your neck. You steadied yourself, gripped your neck. Your breathing began to speed up, and your friends watched in horror as long fangs quickly protruded out of the sides of your mouth from your upper lip. That's all you remember before blacking out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> everyone else is effected and angst n shit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so just as a small spoiler jake sorta snaps under pressure and long story short, stabby stabby murder murder but I won't tell which chapter >;^}

You finally regain conscience. Oh my god lets hope this is a dream please be a dream. Psyche. As the black fuzz lining your vision fades away, your eyes dart around, spotting Dirk, Jane and Roxy, who was already stirring awake. You sat up, holding your head steady. You shook Jane's arm, and your hand sunk into her arm. You retracted your arm quickly and nearly vomit. Your hand was covered in a blue goo oh my god Jane what happened to you what happened shit you're crying please let this be a nightmare.

 

You glanced around, moving closer to Jane. From what little you could make out, her arm, leg and parts of her face were a light blue cake-batter-transparent-ish-feeling goo replacing flesh and bone. You looked over to Dirk, and found that the right half of his body was completely dog-like. The other half remained human. Large black ears poked out of the top of Roxy's head, and she had the same thing as Dirk, but everything was on the left side. You didn't even want to look at what they had done to you. This was too much for you to handle. "Jakey?" You could hear Roxy from across the small room, her voice shaking. You carefully  maneuvered around Jane, sitting next to Roxy. She scanned you, hard, and began to tear up. Whatever they had done to you was bad.

 

She pulled your head into her lap, holding you close. She brushed a hand underneath one of your eyes, a hard, scratchy surface in place of skin. She then moved to your ears, where long, thin, and scaly ears were in place. You didn't know what happened, but you knew one thing for sure; None of you were human anymore. You began to sob, harder then you ever had before. She pulled you in tighter, you gripping her sides for support. The hot tears make you feel worse, and you pushed you face more into her lap. She rocked your head slowly, and you managed to stop after a while.

 

This wasn't a dream. You're still panicking, even after Roxy helped. You heaved yourself to your feet, but were stopped by a hard metal surface. A cage, it looks like. All four of you. Kept in one large cage like fucking animals. You honestly don't think it can get any worse. You miss grandma.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :^>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoa shit! this story's getting noticed! :00 thank you!

After you managed to get a grip on yourself, you shakily stood up, moving towards the door of the cage. Slipping a hand through the bars, you stuck your finger into the lock, hoping your new claws could unlock it.  _Click._ Success. You kicked it open, waking up Jane.

 

Dirk had confronted Roxy about what happened, determined not to break his poker face, but you could sense his total distraught and stress radiating off of him in waves. Jane lifted a hand to her face, having a similar reaction that you had. She used the cage bar to steady herself, one hand on the bar and the other on your shoulder. You spun around, hugging her tightly to reassure her. You led her out of the cage, still feeling her leaning on your shoulder.

 

"Okay. I'm pretty sure that this door is locked, but I'm not suuuuure." Roxy tapped a furry hand on her chin, squinting at the large door in front of you. "Roxy, we've been trying to open this door for 10 minutes, it's clearly locked shut." You groan, kicking the door again.

 

"Maybe it's jammed." "It's not jammed, all the locks and whatnots are clearly-" You paused, seeing Dirk punch the lock a few times before it opened with a small creak. "See. Told ya. It was jammed, Jakey. Simple math." You didn't even bother questioning her and you padded out the door.

 

\---

 

You, Jade, Rose and John had already woken up to discover whatever the hell these people did to you. Rose looked like a fucking owl, with the feathers and the wings and the clicky clacky bird feet. John was a weird fish salamander, with the only fish attribute being large blue and yellow scaled fins along his cheeks and elbows. Jade had a whole dog yiff thing going on, and you were this sick looking bird with these large grey wings and feathers fucking everywhere and the same click clack bird feet as Rose. You don't mean to brag, but you look the most bad ass out of everyone.

 

You hauled yourself out of that cage, scratching at the door. John was slapping his tail against the floor, deep in thought as to how to get out of this room. Jade was chatting rather excitedly with Rose. You noticed that there was only one lock. "Egbutt, I think I got an idea." You gave a small  _pap pap_ to John with a wing, and he spat out a feather, sitting up. "John, try pushing up that lock." "Why?" "You're taller." In reality, he only stood about two inches above you. "Dave, you can reach it." I'm vertically impaired, dude. I have special short needs."

 

He grumbled something under his breath, straining to push up the lock.  _Clack._ You pushed the door open, Jade's head whirling over to the noise. You peeked out the door looking over to the left. No one. Right. Nada. You quickly flew out of the room, although you smashed into a wall seven seconds later. Ow.


	7. Chapter 7

Hello!!

 

Its Reeve here! So I'm just gonna be updating you on the status of this story.

 

I know I haven't updated in a while;

 

so this story is going on a short hiatus. :/

 

I just can't think of anything!

 

ill publish one more chapter before the hiatus

 

buuuuuuuut on the bright side

 

im looking for a coauthor!!

 

ill have open two spots for two coauthors! I can't work alone on it!

 

just message me or comment on this chapter if you request to be a coauthor!

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know who to kill off now. Buckle up.

After walking out into the rather cold metal corridors, you observed the two mutant groups, alpha and beta. You eyed one carefully, however. He seemed like a perfect target. You flipped over to the second screen to scan over the DNA codes. Whatever he did, the experiments turned out successful.

Flipping over to the third screen, you checked on the device in progress. Then, monitoring the DNA pattern of the select kid, Alpha_grn4 as he is labeled in the DNA files, you realized that this next experiment will work indeed, but with deadly consequences.

 

\---

 

"Jake! Hurry up, we're trying to find the others so stop lagging behind." Jane called behind her shoulder. You picked up the pace, dropping the little rat skull between your claws. Your head still hurt, despite the whole 'you saying you're fine despite banging your head on the floor when you were darted so it hurt like a bitch' thing. You groaned, practically dragging yourself forward. How long were these corridors anyway? You wondered how worried grandma was. She must be panicking right now. Your heart ached just thinking about it. What about Jade? Did she manage to get out of this retched place?

 

"Jake? You alright?" Roxys voice snapped you out of your painful thoughts. "Y-Yeah. Just worried." Her face softened, and you could tell, despite the darkened hallways, she was afraid for you. Sighing, you placed your head on her chest. You never really thought about how tall she was, with you at 5'4 and her at 5'11. Purring quite loudly, she pulled you in closer. "You're so fuckin' short oh my god." You huffed loudly, kicking her in the shin. "Ow- but it's cuuuute c'mon!" You kicked her again. "Well it's not my fault that I'm short and you're a tree person!" You huffed. "Oh my god. Stop bickering like a couple of 12 year olds for fuck sakes." Dirk moaned at the front of the line. You both snickered at each other, and heaved onward.

 

"Guys? You may want to take a look at this." Dirk called from up ahead. You spotted a door where Dirk was standing. Without thinking, you pryed it open, looking inside. Left and right, there were more cages. You stepped inside, pulling at one on the cage doors. "Jake! What in the fresh hell are you doing?!" Jane grumbled through her teeth. You lifted a tag on the cage. 'NAME: Teresa Pyrope' you dropped the tag, the plastic clanking against the metal bars. A light growl rumbled through the room. "Jaaake, let's get outta here! It's creepin' me tha' hell out!" Roxy hissed. You pulled at the bars again. This time, the lock broke into rusted pieces, and almost immediately after, a darkened figure leapt out, tackling you to the floor. Dirk threw himself onto what had tackling you, prying it off you by the shoulders. Roxy and Jane however, onlooking in terror, were unaware of what was behind them. Clank. Another cage's bars were opened, and they faced the bars, with Jane attempting to close the metal cage. "We REALLY shouldn't have come here!" Roxy yelled.


End file.
